Low level laser therapy (LLLT) utilizes low level laser energy in the treatment of a broad range of conditions. LLLT improves wound healing, reduces edema, and relieves pain of various etiologies, including successful application post-operatively to liposuction to reduce inflammation and pain. LLLT is also used during liposuction procedures to facilitate removal of fat by causing intracellular fat to be released into the interstice. It is also used in the treatment and repair of injured muscles and tendons.
The LLLT treatment has an energy dose rate that causes no immediate detectable temperature rise of the treated tissue and no macroscopically visible changes in tissue structure. Consequently, the treated and surrounding tissue is not heated and is not damaged. There are a number of variables in laser therapy including the wavelength of the laser beam, the area impinged by the laser beam, laser energy, pulse width, treatment duration and tissue characteristics. The success of each therapy depends on the relationship and combination of these variables. For example, liposuction may be facilitated with one regimen utilizing a given wavelength and treatment duration, whereas pain may be treated with a regimen utilizing a different wavelength and treatment duration, and inflammation a third regimen. Specific devices are known in the art for each type of therapy.
An earlier patent, U. S. Pat. No. 6,013,096, describes a hand-held wand that houses a red semiconductor laser and optics to deliver the beam from the laser to the skin of a patient. A simple timing circuit is provided for controlling the length of time a laser beam is emitted from the wand. An optical arrangement causes the emitted light to form a line on the patient's skin, the shape of the light as it impinges the patient's skin referred to herein as the beam spot.
Reference may also be had to our co-pending application Ser. No. 09/932,907 which describes a device that delivers two or more laser beams with different characteristics to treat a patient for multiple types of problems during a single treatment. The patent application describes a hand-held wand that houses a plurality of laser energy sources and optics to direct laser beams from the sources to a patient. Control electronics are provided to vary such parameters as the pulse repetition rate. Optics are also provided to select the beam shape of the laser output, which in turn determines the beam spot.
Both of these devices rely on a static optical arrangement to produce a beam spot. Neither of the devices provides a means for varying the shape of the beam spot on demand nor for automatically varying the resultant intensity. It has become clear in LLLT that there is benefit in being able to customize the delivery of the laser light treatment by changing the shape and energy distribution of the delivered beam spot.
Therefore, an object of this invention is to provide a laser therapy device that enables shaping of the delivered laser beam to suit multiple types of treatments. It is a particular object of this invention to provide a hand-held therapeutic laser device to provide low level laser therapy which can be used to treat injured muscles and tendons, facilitate liposuction, and treat post-operative inflammation and pain.